Grid Table

sap.ui.table.Table

Intro

A grid table contains a set of data that is structured in rows and columns. It allows the user to scroll in both directions and can handle large numbers of items and columns.

Usage

Use the grid table if:

The cell level and the spatial relationship between cells are more important than the line item. Examples include spreadsheet analyses and waterfall charts. Note that a grid table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.

You have to work on more than 1,000 rows. In this case, the grid table is easier to handle. In contrast to theresponsive table, the architecture of the grid table is optimized for handling large numbers of items. Note that a grid table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktop and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.

Comparing items is a major use case. In this case, a grid table might be more appropriate than a responsive table. In the grid table, each cell contains only one data point. In contrast, the responsive table is more flexible regarding line items, including the ability to add more data points per cell and also the pop-in function. Both make comparisons more difficult. Note that a grid table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.

You need an analytical table, but you cannot provide an analytical binding on the technical side. In this case, a grid table will do the work. Note that the grid table provides only one level of grouping, no aggregation options, and is also not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.

Do not use the grid table if:

You need a table. The responsive table is the default table in SAP Fiori. Additional use cases where you might need the responsive table include:

The focus is on working on line items, not on cells. The responsive table is optimized for displaying complete items on all devices, such as file browsing and a list of documents you want to act on, like purchase orders and purchase requisitions.

Selecting one or several items is the main use case and details are needed to choose the correct item.

Line items are independent of each other and no operation across columns is needed.

You want to have only one implementation for all devices.

The main use case is choosing one item from a very small number of items with no additional details. A select or combo boxmight be more appropriate.

The main use case is choosing one out of several items with only a few details per item. A listmight be more appropriate. Pay attention to the layout of the list item to ensure that it has a pleasant appearance.

Data needs to be structured in a hierarchical manner. Use a tree table instead. Note that neither the tree table nor the grid table are responsive. You will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones and tablets.

You need an overview of a large amount of data. In this case, use charts.

You just need it for layout reasons. In this case, use a layout container such as HBox or VBox.

You need read-only or editable field-value pairs. Use a form instead. The grid table is not optimized for form-like input navigation.

Responsiveness and Adaptiveness

A grid table is available for desktops and tablets, but not in smartphone sizes. It supports touch devices, but is not optimized for small screens.

If you use a grid table, note that you have to implement a fallback solution for small screens. This fallback solution does not need to support all use cases.

You could create a fallback by using a responsive table, but a completely different solution, such as showing charts in a read-only case, might be more appropriate.

Grid table shown on a desktop

Grid table shown on a tablet

Layout

The column header allows the user to resize and rearrange columns. It also provides access to a menu with column-specific commands.

The collection of items, or rows, occupies the main part of the grid table.

The selector cells allow the user to select one or more items.

The Select All button selects or deselects all items.

Schematic visualization of the grid table

Components

A grid table does not consist of other elements. However, it is common to use a toolbar above the grid table.

Scroll bar

Select

Selection Mode

A non-selection grid table

Single selection: One item in the grid table can be selected. A row selector column is shown. (property: selectionMode = Single)

A single-selection grid table

Multiple selection: One or more items can be selected. The grid table provides a column with checkboxes on the left-hand side. Clicking a checkbox toggles the state of the corresponding row from deselected to selected and back. The Shift key can be used to select a range.

For multiple selection, you can choose between two variants.

Multi-toggle mode (property: selectionMode = MultiToggle)

Multi-selection plug-in (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin)

These variants behave differently when the user selects more items than are currently loaded in the front end.

Multi-toggle

In multi-toggle mode, you can offer a Select All checkbox to the left of the column header (property: enableSelectAll). Selecting this checkbox selects or deselects all items that are currently loaded in the front end. All other items are not selected/deselected. If the application data is stored in the back end, scrolling down further can reveal additional unselected items. The same can happen with range selections if not all items in the selected range have been loaded to the front end.

Multi-selection plug-in

If you use this plug-in instead of the multi-toggle selection mode, the behavior for range selection and Select All changes:

By default, a dedicated Deselect All button replaces the Select All checkbox. There is no default UI element for selecting all items.

You can set a limit for the number of items that can be selected (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin, property: limit). This limit has the following effect:

The range that can be selected using the Shift key is limited to the specified number of items (default = 200). The table automatically scrolls back to the last selected item. Users can select more items by selecting additional ranges (the specified limit applies each time).

If the selection limit is set to 0, a Select All checkbox is shown. There is also no limit on the number of items that can be selected in a range. All selected items are loaded, which can lead to performance issues for large data sets.

If selected items are not already available in the front end, they are loaded automatically by the plug-in and set as selected.

A multiselection grid table

Using the multi-selection plug-in with a limit

Selection Behavior

An item can be selected in different ways, depending on the configuration of the grid table (sap.ui.table.Table, property: selectionBehavior):

Row: An item is selected by clicking the checkbox or the row. Use this option for multi-selection grid tables if clicking a row or a cell is not used for anything else.

RowSelector: An item is selected only by clicking the checkbox in the selector cell. Use this option if clicking the row (or a cell inside the row) is used for something else, such as navigation.

RowOnly: An item is selected only by clicking the row, and not using checkboxes in the selector cells. Use this for single-selection grid tables if clicking a row or a cell is not used for another purpose, such as navigation.

Compact, Cozy, and Condensed

Like all SAP Fiori controls, the grid table is shown in compact mode on a desktop and in cozy mode on tablets.

For a desktop, you can also display even more rows on the same screen height by adding the condensed mode in addition to the compact mode. This renders less white space for each item.

Note that the condensed content density has always to be set in addition to compact. Do not use condensed on its own. Do not mix condensed with cozy. Doing so could lead to unpredictable and / or unwanted results, e.g. cozy sized controls in condensed sized containers, missing padings, etc.

Note that neither compact mode nor condensed mode can be interacted with via touch. Even on a desktop with a touch screen, users will have difficulty selecting rows or using controls inside the cells when using their fingers.

Furthermore, condensed mode is not available for Internet Explorer 9. If condensed mode is to be used, please provide a fallback.

Column Header

The column header provides the label for the corresponding column and access to the column header menu.

Columns are resized as follows:

Mouse interaction: The user drags the separator line between two columns (sap.ui.table.Column, property: Resizable). Double-clicking the line optimizes the column according to the length of the currently visible data and the label of the column header (sap.ui.table.Column, property: Autoresizable).

Touch interaction: The user taps the column header to reveal two buttons – one to show the column header menu, and one for resizing. The user drags the latter to resize the column.

After resizing a column, the adaptation of the column widths depends on how the column width is set:

If column widths are set in pixel-based units (px, em, rem), the corresponding column is adapted and the columns that follow are moved accordingly. The width of all other columns is not affected.
If all the columns together take up less width than the table control, an empty space is added. In case all columns together take up more width than the table control, a scrollbar appears. (sap.ui.table.Column, property: width)

If all column widths are set in percentage or “auto”, resizing one column might also lead to the automatic resizing of some or all other columns. The position of the resized column might also be affected. This is done to ensure that the whole table width is used and no white space is added. A scrollbar appears only if all or most of the columns shrink significantly. To avoid the side effect of undersized columns, a minimum width can be set per column. Please be aware that this minimum width is only taken into account if columns are automatically resized. End users are still able to reduce the column width below the provided minimum. (sap.ui.table.Column, properties: width, minWidth)

Columns can be rearranged by dragging the column header to another position (sap.ui.table.Table, property: enableColumnReordering).

Column header

Opening the column header menu on touch devices

Less columns than space available

Column Header Menu

For each column, a menu can contain the following menu items (sap.ui.table.ColumnMenu, property: visible):

Sort settings in column header menu

Filter

If the user enters a term in the input field and triggers the search by pressing Enter when the focus is on the filter input field, the grid table is filtered by the corresponding column and value (sap.ui.table.Table, properties: filtered, filterProperty, filterValue, filterOperator, sap.ui.table.Column, property: filterType).

Note that the filter may return zero results, in which case, the table might be empty.

General recommendations for filtering:

If filtering is a main use case, choose the filter bar or any other filtering UI over the built-in free text filter.

Only use the free text filter if filtering is a secondary use case and if the filter bar is too heavy.

Free text filter in column header menu

Group

The column header menu can provide the option to group by this column (sap.ui.table.Column, property: enableGrouping).

One group collects all items with the same value within the corresponding column.

Group setting in column header menu

If line items are grouped in a column, every group is provided with a collapsible or expandable group header. The header text consists of the name of the value and the number of items in the specific group. Only one grouping level is possible.

Group header

Once line items have been grouped, the corresponding column is hidden. There is no built-in possibility to ungroup the grid table again. Therefore, provide a view settings dialog or table presonalization dialog to offer an additional way to group by a column and a way to ungroup the complete table.

An exception to this is when the table is grouped from the start and should not be ungrouped at all.

Group headers shown, the corresponding column hidden: no duplicates, but a confusing change

Warning

Note that grouping the grid table is experimental and currently works only on items loaded to the front end. Thus, scrolling down the table leads to data not being grouped as expected.

Only use this feature if you have just a few line items, all of which are loaded to the front end. If this is the case, consider using a responsive table first instead of a grid table.

Freeze Columns

The column header menu can provide the option to freeze columns (sap.ui.table.Table, property: enableColumnFreeze). Selecting Freeze freezes all columns up to the one in which the operation was triggered (sap.ui.table. Table, property: fixedColumnCount).

When Freeze is triggered, the menu item changes to Unfreeze for the corresponding column.

Freeze setting in column header menu

Line Item Level

A line item contains a set of cells and provides options for selecting the item.

To prevent adverse side effects when scrolling vertically, all line items must have the same height (sap.ui.table.Table, property: rowHeight).

Line item

Drag and Drop

One or several items can be repositioned within a table or moved to other UI elements using drag and drop operations (sap.ui.table.Table, aggregation: dragDropConfig). While being dragged, the items are shown as ghost elements on the mouse cursor.

Drop targets can be on items, between items, or both (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition). On a drop target, the mouse cursor changes to either a “copy”, “link”, “move”, or “none” cursor. “None” indicates that the dragged item cannot be dropped in the current position (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropEffect).

Drag and drop is only available on supporting browsers.

Drag and drop

Whole item as drop target

Context Menu

You can attach a context menu (sap.m.Menu) to a table. The context menu gives users an alternative way to modify the focused elements by giving them access to context-specific functions.

When opened, the context menu gets the row and column context, except for special columns (such as the selection column) or special rows (like group headers). Context menus can be implemented for a specific table, row, or cell (not recommended for editable cells).

Context menus are opened by right-clicking (desktop), long press (mobile), the context menu key, or SHIFT+F10.

Be aware that using the context menu overrides the browser context menu, which can no longer be opened.

If a control inside a table is the “click target”, and the control also provides a context menu, the control context menu “wins”.

Grid table with a context menu

Cell Level

A cell provides one data point.

It can contain one of the following controls to display this data point:

While it is technically possible to also use other controls, doing so could lead to issues in regards to alignment, condensed mode, screen reader support, and keyboard support.

If you use text, use only single-line text to keep the same row height. Truncate if necessary as this prevents adverse side effects when scrolling vertically (sap.m.Text, property: wrapping, value: false). Do not wrap.

Cell

Guidelines

Data Density vs. Complexity

The grid table can be used to display large amounts of data. Unfortunately, the grid table has a high data density and therefore conveys an immediate feeling of complexity.

Only show tables with a lot of data as a last resort. Try the following instead:

Break down the data into manageable chunks and allow the user to navigate or drill down between them.

Use charts with drilldown functionality until the amount of data is more manageable.

Try to avoid horizontal scrolling in the default delivery.

Try to minimize the number of columns, especially if there is a large number of rows.

Table Title

Use a table title only if the title of the table is not indicated in the surrounding area.

Do not use a table title if it simply repeats text that is already above the table. For example:

A pricing conditions table is the only control on a tab labeled Pricing Conditions.

A section or subsection on an object page contains only one table.

Use a table title if you need the item count, table toolbar, or variant management. To avoid repeating text, feel free to use generic text as a table title, such as Items.
Exception: If the surrounding area contains the table title, and both the item count and toolbar can be added to the surrounding area, no additional table title is needed.
Example: An object page (sub-)section contains only one table. In this case, add the item count and the table toolbar to the (sub-)section header.

If you use a table title, show either a title for the table, with or without variant management, or an item count in the following format:

Items (2,534).

The item count in the table title includes all the visible items that a user can reach by scrolling or expanding groups. Group headers are not included.

Remove the item count in the table title if there are zero items.

Developer Hint

Assistive technologies (such as screen readers) use the title to create a hierarchical site map for faster navigation. In addition, screen readers use the title as the label for the table.

If you don’t use a title (for example, to avoid repetition), make sure that the table is connected to another meaningful on-screen text that can be used as a label for assistive technologies. You can do this using the method addAriaLabelledBy.

Multiple Selection

We strongly recommend using the multi-selection plug-in. This ensures that all items selected using Select All or as part of a range are included – even if some items were not initially loaded in the front end. This is not the case if you use the multi-toggle option.

Do not limit the range selection for the multi-selection plug-in unless you have to.

If the dataset is small and/or completely available in the front-end, set the limit property to 0 to enable the Select All option and allow users to select any range.

If you have a large dataset, set a limit on the number of selected items to avoid performance issues. Also bear in mind that some actions won’t be helpful if the dataset is too big (for example, a delete operation on 2 million database entries).

In multiple selection mode (multi toggle), do not show checkboxes in the first data column in the default delivery to avoid confusion.

Don't

Do not add checkboxes to the first data column in the default delivery

Loading Data

To indicate that the table is currently loading items, use the busy state. (sap.ui.table.Table, property: busy). Do not show any items or text. As soon as the data is loaded, remove the busy state and show all items.

Grid table in busy state while loading data

Columns – Best Practices

Minimize the number of columns. Avoid the need to scroll horizontally in the default delivery.

The grid table assigns the same width to each column by default. It is recommended that you overwrite this default to provide optimal space for your content (sap.ui.table.Column, property: width).

If you define the column width in pixels or rems, resizing a column affects only the width of this specific column. Reducing the browser window size results in a scrollbar. After resizing a column, a scroll bar appears if the width of the table is not enough to show all columns. If the columns use less space than available, white space appears on the right side of the last column.

If you define the column width as a percentage, resizing one column affects the width of several or all columns. Text becomes truncated when the browser window size is reduced. This is done to make sure that all columns together fill the space of the table. A scrollbar appears only in case the automatic change of the column widths is not enough for showing all columns. To avoid the side effect of undersized columns, a minimum width can be set per column. Please be aware that this minimum width is only taken into account if columns are automatically resized. End users are still able to reduce the column width below the provided minimum.

If you define the column width as “auto”, the behavior is the same as for “percentage”. In contrast to percentage, “auto” distributes the columns equally.

To decide on how to set the column width (pixel / rem / em vs. percent / auto), keep the following in mind:

For tables with only 2 to 3 columns, use pixel-based units. This ensures that on wide screens the values in the columns are not spread over the whole screen, which improves the readability of line items.

For tables with many columns, where a horizontal scrollbar is usually needed, use pixel-based units. This avoids unintended side effects when resizing columns.

For all other tables, use whatever fits your case better.

Be cautious with mixing columns with pixel-based and percentage-based widths. While this can be helpful in some cases, it could also cause even more unexpected side effects when resizing a column. When using percentage-based widths for one or more columns, think of the possibility to not allow end users to resize columns at all.

Optimize the column width for its initial visible content, including the column header texts. If this is not possible (for example, if showing the full texts would result in extremely wide columns), let the texts truncate. End users can change the width of the column to read the full text, as needed.

Maintain a constant column width and avoid adjusting it automatically when the content changes.

Always keep to one line of text. Do not wrap.

Don't

In the default delivery, the initial visible content should not be truncated

Don't

Never wrap texts

Column Headers – Best Practices

For each column, provide a label in the column header. In the default delivery, do not truncate the column header texts. Only let the text truncate if showing the full text would make the column too wide. Never wrap the text.

Left-alignment of text

Right-alignment of numbers

Right-align amounts with currencies to the cell and align them in terms of their respective decimal points.

This ensures that amounts with different currencies are shown correctly, whether these currencies have 0, 2, or 3 decimals.

For aligning to the decimal point, use the sap.ui.uinified.Currency control.

Alignment to decimal point

Right-align dates and times.

This ensures comparability for most formats and locales.

Right-alignment of dates

Left-align status information.

Left-align status information

Center-align icons.

Left-align micro charts.

XS micro charts in condensed mode

Content Formatting

Locale Settings

Be locale-aware: show dates, times, numbers, and so on in the format corresponding to the user’s locale settings.

Key Identifier

Use a bold label or an emphasized link as the key identifier of an item. In the default delivery, show the key identifier in the first column.

Emphasized link

For strings with IDs, use one of the following:

Show the ID in brackets after the corresponding string. Use this formatting if sorting, grouping, or filtering is only needed on the string, but not on the ID.

Show the ID in a separate column. Use this format if sorting, grouping, or filtering on the string and the ID is needed.

Text and ID in one column – Sorting, filtering, and grouping only on the text

If displayed as a link, use the whole text as the link

Text and ID in two columns – Allows sorting, filtering, and grouping on both

If displayed as a link, use only the string as the link, not the ID

Truncation

Avoid truncation of typical content in the default delivery (sap.ui.table.Column, property: width). However, since the columns are resizable, do not worry too much if truncation occurs as columns can still be enlarged if necessary.

To prevent adverse side effects when scrolling vertically, all line items must also have the same height. If you need to decide between truncation and different row heights, choose truncation. Do not wrap.

Optimize column width for typical content, not all content

Number of Links

Are there too many links? Use subtle links to avoid a wall of links. Standard links are also emphasized more if they are surrounded by subtle links.

Emphasized links, links, subtle links, and text

Missing Value

If there is no value for a cell, leave it blank. Do not display text as N/A.

Leave empty fields blank

Numbering Items

In terms of numbering items:

If the item number is more like an ID with regard to its description, use ID formatting as described above.

In all other cases, use a separate column for the item number.

Add a separate column for the item number

Status

For status information, use semantic colors on the foreground elements.

Micro charts in a grid table

Empty Tables

If a table is initially empty, provide at least a basic text:No items available.
Overwrite this whenever a hint can be provided on how to fill the table with data.

If a table is used together with a filter bar (as in the list report), and is initially empty, use the following text:To start, set the relevant filters.

If a table is used together with a filter bar and the filter does not return results, use the following text:No data found. Try adjusting the filter settings.

Adapt the texts above if:

The standard text is not precise enough for your use case (for example, a search is also offered, or only the search is offered).

The standard text is misleading (for example, if the data is filled based on a master-detail pattern instead of filter settings).

Provide meaningful instructions

Invalid State

To show an invalid state of the grid table within the list report floorplan, show an overlay on the grid table and the corresponding toolbar (sap.ui.table.Table, property: showOverlay). The overlay prevents user interactions.

Use this within the list report floorplan if filter settings have been changed but the grid table is has not yet been updated.

Grid table with invalid data

Item States

To show that an item has been modified, for example, within the global edit flow, add the string Modified in an additional column with the label Editing Status.

In the default delivery, add a column directly behind the key identifier.

A modified item

To show that a modified item contains an error, for example, within the global edit flow, add the string Contains errors in the Editing Status column and highlight the row accordingly. This string replaces the Modified string.

A modified item with an error

To show that an item is locked, add a transparent-style button with the corresponding icon and the text Locked by [name] in the Editing Status column.

A locked item

To show that an item is in draft state, add a transparent-style button with the text Draft in the Editing Status column.

Item in draft state

Show only one state at a time.

Numbers and Units

Show the unit of measurement in one of the following ways:

Number and Unit in Same Cell

The number and the unit are in the same cell. Do this if sorting, filtering, or grouping by the unit of measurement are not needed.

Number and unit of measurement in one cell

Number and Unit in Separate Columns

The number and unit are in separate columns. Do this if sorting, filtering, or grouping by the unit of measurement are a common use case.

Note that this column can be hidden or moved independently of the column containing the corresponding number. Therefore, be sure to have clear labels for both columns to communicate the dependency.

Number and unit of measurement in two columns

Show the unit of measurment on the column header, if the unit of measurement is the same for all rows. If not, show the unit of measurement within the row.

Drag and Drop

If you offer drag and drop for rearranging items within the table, use drop targets that are between items (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition.Between). This provides better feedback on where the item will be inserted. Show the “move” mouse cursor (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropEffect.Move).

Drop targets in between items

Do not combine rearranging items and sorting. If you really need to do so, make sure that there is a dedicated sort criterion for the user-defined sort order, and only offer options for rearranging items if this sort order is set.

Don't

Do not combine rearranging items with sorting

Drag and drop is “invisible” on the UI: users can’t see where dragging is available and where it isn’t. In addition, it is not accessible, since there is no generic keyboard interaction. Drag and drop is also not available on all browsers. For these reasons, provide it only in addition to existing (and visible) UI elements that fulfill the same purpose. For example, offer (toolbar) buttons for moving or for copying and pasting items.

Use drag and drop only in addition to existing visible UI elements

When combining rearranging items with grouping, be aware that moving items to another group also means that a value of the dropped item changes: because grouping is based on values in a column, the dropped item needs to take on the value of the target group for the corresponding column. If this is not wanted, do not allow users to rearrange items in grouped tables.

Example:
A table is grouped by availability. An item is moved from the group “Not Available” to the group “In Stock”. In this case, the moved item needs to change its availability to “In Stock” to match the target group. If changing the value doesn’t make sense make sense, only allow users to rearrange the items within the same group, or don’t allow rearranging at all.

Don't

Do not combine rearranging items with grouping, unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Context Menu

Use the context menu only as a quick way of accessing functions that are already available elsewhere (for example, as buttons in the toolbar). Don’t just offer actions in the context menu itself, as users might not realize that these actions are available at all.

The context menu can be triggered for the table, row, or cell. However, we do not recommend using context menus for cells: because the content of a cell is a different touch target than the cell itself, opening a cell context menu via touch is quite hard, even in cozy mode.

Do not combine context menus with condensed mode: editable controls fill the entire space inside a cell. Because of this, context menus cannot be opened at all with touch or mouse interaction.

Multiple Items

Do not offer action triggering on multiple items if the table is generally expected to have fewer than 10 items. In this case, try to use the responsive table instead of the grid table.

Single Item

To trigger actions on a single item (sap.ui.table. Table, property: selectionMode, value: Single):

Show the actions on the table toolbar.

In rare cases, show the actions within the line item. One example would be an Add to Cart button in a shopping application. Since these actions are repeated in every line and thus use a lot of screen real estate, do this only for a maximum of one or two actions. Provide a separate column per action. Use a button, unless the action trigger belongs to a link.

To trigger navigation on line item level, choose one of the following options:

Use a link for the attribute that identifies the row. Clicking the link triggers the navigation.

Add the RowActions column and show the navigation indicator ( ) at the end of the row. The navigation arrow triggers the navigation.

Use the RowActions column only for one or both of the following actions:

Navigate to details page ()

Delete ()

The RowActions column does not provide a column header text. It is fixed and will not scroll away. Users also cannot personalize this column.

Single Cell

To trigger actions on a single cell, create the corresponding click event. Do not use the cell click event if the cell contains interactive controls, such as links.

Add Items

Use Create if the button adds a brand new item that doesn’t yet exist on the database.

Use Add if the item already exists and is merely added or assigned to the current object.

Show new items as the first item of the table, with a visual highlight at the beginning of the row.

For more details, see the guidelines for managing objects (including subarticles).

Enabling/Disabling Actions

To indicate if an action can be applied to the current selection:

Enable the action if it can be applied to all selected items.

Enable the action if it can be applied to some of the selected items. If the action is triggered, show a message that informs the user how many items will be affected. Let the user choose whether to apply the action anyway or cancel the action.

Only disable the action if it can be applied to none of the selected items.

Message for an action that applies to a part of a selection

Editable Content

Only these controls are optimized for all viewing modes of the grid table.

If you need edit mode, change your text controls, such as label, text, link, object status, icons, and currencies, to editable controls as soon as you switch to edit mode, but not before. You can do this by exchanging the controls, for example, from sap.m.Text to sap.m.Input.

For mass editing items:

Provide multiselection.

Provide an Edit button.

If several items are selected, clicking the Edit button opens a dialog in which the user edits the corresponding fields for all selected items.

Interactive controls – In line

View Settings

Column header menu: In all cases, show the corresponding settings in the column header menu.

View settings dialog: Simple and more flexible with regard to filter settings. No advantage for sorting. Allows the user to ungroup grouped columns.tables with a medium amount of items.

Table personalization dialog: Provides complex options for sorting items by several levels and allows the user to ungroup grouped columns. It also provides a query-builder-like approach for filter settings. The complexity of the options is also its downside. Use the table personalization dialog for tables with a large number of items.

If filtering is a main use case, use the filter bar. In this case, avoid offering additional filter settings on the table. If you do, the filter settings on the grid table work only on the result set provided by the filter bar.

Always be careful when synchronizing the settings in the dialog with the settings from the column header menu.

Trigger the dialogs in one of the following ways:

View settings dialog: Provide several buttons, one for each of these view settings. Each button opens the view settings dialog on the corresponding page.

Use only the view settings you really need. For example, do not offer grouping if it does not support your use case.

Column header menu with view settings

Table toolbar with triggers for view settings dialog

Table toolbar with trigger for table personalization dialog

Be persistent. When reopening the app, show the analytical table in the same view settings (sort/ filter/ group/ aggregation settings) as last defined by this user.

Sort

To display the current sort state, an icon is shown in the column header of the most recently sorted column. This icon indicates the sort direction (sap.ui.table.Column, properties: sorted, sortOrder, sortProperty).

For the default sort settings, sort by the column that identifies the row, which is usually the first column in default delivery.

Column, sorted ascending

Column, sorted descending

The descending sort order must always be the exact reverse of the ascending sort order. For each column, provide a meaningful sort order. For example:

Object status sorted ascending, with neutral status last

Object status sorted descending, with neutral status first

Ascending with different values per severity level: Sort status information from positive to negative, with neutral last. Sort different values within a severity level (semantic color) alphabetically.

Descending with different values per severity level: Sort status information from negative to positive, with neutral first. Sort different values within a severity level (semantic color) alphabetically.

Object status sorted ascending and alphabetically, from positive to negative with neutral last

Object status sorted descending and alphabetically, from negative to positive with neutral first

Filter

To display the current filter state, an icon is shown in the column header of the filtered column (sap.ui.table.Column, properties: filtered, filterProperty, filterValue, filterOperator, defaultFilterOperator, filterType).

Column, filtered

Group

To display the current group state, group headers are shown. Show the following text in the group header:

[Grouping value] – [Item count for the group]

Group headers

In general, offer reasonable grouping by default if appropriate. Enable the user to ungroup via the view settings dialog or via the table personalization dialog.

Personalization

Only offer personalization if you need more columns than those that fit on a tablet screen, which is usually five, to fulfill 80% of your main use cases.

Persist the column layout. When a user reopens the app, show the grid table with the same column layout settings as last defined by this user.

The p13n dialog: Besides various complex view settings, it also provides settings for column layout. Use this if you have a large number of columns to choose from and/or you use this dialog anyway for view settings.

In both cases, trigger the dialog via the settings button in the table toolbar.

You can also use drag and drop to rearrange columns (sap.ui.table.Table, property: enableColumnReordering). If you allow rearranging via drag and drop as well as via a dialog, keep both places in sync.

Resize Columns

Resizing columns works differently on touch and non-touch devices.

Non-touch devices: Drag and drop the column separator on the right side of the column. Double-clicking the column separator optimizes the width of the column to the data currently loaded into the front end, which is usually about 100 rows.

Touch devices: Clicking the column header reveals two buttons: one for opening the column header menu, another one for resizing the column. Drag and drop this second button to resize the column.

Freeze Columns

To freeze columns, offer the setting in the column header menu (sap.ui.table.Table, property: enableColumnFreeze). Selecing Freeze on a column freezes all columns from the first one to the one where Freeze is selected. On this column, the menu entry changes from Freeze to Unfreeze.

Frozen column

Highlight Items

To show that an item needs attention, a highlight indicator can be shown in front of the item. The highlight indicator can be used to indicate:

A semantic state, such as red or orange for an error or warning.

Additional information, such as blue to highlight newly added items.

Industry-specific or process-specific states, such as “out of stock” or “excess of inventory”.

Be aware that the highlight is just an indication. It does not tell users exactly what is wrong. Make sure that you provide this information within the table row, ideally in the same color.

Export to Spreadsheet

'Export to Spreadsheet' menu button

Paste

The browser paste function can be used to paste data from the clipboard to the table (CTRL+V or browser context menu).

If the focus is on row level, the app has to take the data from the clipboard and add it to the corresponding controls within the table.

If the focus is on an editable control within the table, the control gets the data automatically.

Pasting via the context menu does not work if a custom context menu is used.

Properties

sap.ui.table.Table

The following additional properties are available for the grid table:

The property: width defines the width of the grid table.

The property: rowHeight defines the height of each row in the grid table. Since the height required is calculated automatically by the grid table, this property is only needed rarely.

The property: columnHeaderHeight defines the height of the column headers. Since the height required is calculated automatically by the grid table, this property is only needed rarely.

The property: columnHeaderVisible can be used to hide the column headers. Always show the column headers.

The property: showColumnVisibilityMenu provides an additional entry in the column header menu that allows columns to be shown or hidden. In SAP Fiori, columns are shown and hidden via the table personalization dialog or via the table personalization dialog. Do not use this property.

The property: visibleRowCount defines the height of the grid table. Show as many rows as fit on the screen.

The property: visibleRowCountMode defines whether the height of the grid table is fixed or automatically calculated based on the space provided by the underlying container. For automatic calculation, make sure that all rows have the same height.

The property: minAutoRowCount defines the minimum number of rows that must be shown if the property: visibleRowCountMode is set to “auto”. Show at least three to five rows.

The property: firstVisibleRow defines the first row shown in the visible area of the grid table. The grid table is scrolled accordingly.

The property: allowColumnReordering is deprecated. Do not use it. Use the property: enableColumnReordering instead.

The property: editable does not have a visible effect. Do not use it.

The property: enableGrouping turns the experimental grouping on or off. Handle with care.

The property: enableCustomFilter changes the filter entry in the column header menu from an edit box to Filter…. Selecting this entry throws an event to which apps can react, for example, by opening a dialog. In general, you should choose the built-in filter over your own implementation. Specifically, keep filtering via the column header menu simple, while offering more advanced options via the table personalization dialog.

The property: enableBusyIndicator has not yet been fully implemented. Do not use it.

The property: title adds a line of text on top of the grid table. Do not use this. To add a title to the table, use a toolbar.

The property: footer adds a short text at the bottom of the table.

The property: Busy sets the grid table to busy state. While in busy state, the whole table cannot be used and items cannot be read due to an overlay.

The property: Tooltip does not have an effect. Do not use it.

The property: alternateRowColors displays the rows with alternating background colors (“banded rows”). Do not use it.

sap.ui.table.Column

The following additional properties are available for the column:

The property: visible defines whether a column is shown or hidden.

The property: name defines the name shown in the column header menu for showing and hiding columns. In SAP Fiori, columns are shown and hidden via the table personalization dialog or via the table personalization dialog. Do not use this property.

The property: headerSpan defines whether one column header is used for one or several columns. To prevent adverse side effects, always use one column header for only one single column. Do not use this property.

The property: Tooltip does not have an effect. Do not use it.

Resources

Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about related controls, the SAPUI5 implementation, and the visual design.